The ECAJ and the Hanson speech

The Executive Council of Australian Jewry has responded to Senator Pauline Hanson’s inaugural speech in parliament on Wednesday in which she called for the introduction of restrictive measures against Australian Muslims, and barring entry to Australia of anyone professing the Muslim faith.

Pauline Hanson

Executive director Peter Wertheim commented: “The Jewish community is acutely aware of the threat posed by self-identified Muslims who commit terrible atrocities in many parts of the world in the name of Islam. But it is grotesquely unfair to stigmatise Muslims generally for these crimes and incorrect to suggest that such crimes epitomise Islam as a belief system.

Peter Wertheim

Senator Hanson has presented no coherent strategy to counter the threat posed by terrorism and extremist ideologies. She proposes banning the burqa and installing surveillance cameras in mosques, as well as barring the future entry of Muslims into Australia, notwithstanding the fact that most of the Australians who have been involved in terrorism have been Australian-born, not migrants. Some of her proposals are aimed at curtailing the practice of Islam within Australia, which directly contradicts Senator Hanson’s professed belief in freedom of religion.

This hodge-podge of largely symbolic measures is no substitute for a coherent counter-terrorism and counter-extremism strategy. The only discernible effect of Senator Hanson’s words is to misdirect the ongoing discussion on national security and social cohesion.

Comments

Peter, with you 100%. Shame though there are those in the Jewish community who agree with Hanson. History certainly didn’t teach them that a racist is a racist is a racist. They somehow think that they’re immune to racism.

Mr. Peter Wertheim has been living in outer space without communications it appears. Peter why don’t you start by reading and studying the Koran. The only peace loving Muslim is a dead one. It IS their belief to kill all who are not Muslim. Yes there should be camera’s in Mosques as their leaders continuously preach hate and to kill the infidel. Muslims have no problem banning everything that is not Islam. No Most are not Australian born but hold dual citizenship and when found guilty of terrorism they still are not departed as is stated by Australian law to their country of origin. When they come to Australia they should abide by our law yet they do not and want to change our laws to Sharia law. Mr. Wertheim, just try and put a complaint in against a Muslim here in Australia with the Anti-Discrimination Law when you are terrorized, ask for Tory McGuire or even the Director of the anti Discrimination Board and see what happens. Go to your local Police station and ask for protection or the Federal Police, as an innocent victim of Muslim terrorism you are left out in the cold and hung out to dry… nothing is done until you are attacked physically or dead. But oops, it now isn’t terrorism when it comes to crimes Muslims commit but a mentally unstable or disturbed young man. By all means let us protect the guilty evil people and watche the world go to hell. Just look at Europe, not what Australia shows on the News but go to the relative countries news. Boy Mr. Wertheim have you lost the plot.

Pauline Hanson talks non sense. The latest figures available from ABS show that the largest group of immigrants to Australia are as follows:
1. UK
2. NZ
3. China
4 India.
etc
And yet no-one questions her about the facts. No-one is pointing out that if we are swamped (as she says) we are swamped by people from the UK and NZ.

The French Jewish community would not share the brush off attitude of ECAJ.

Hopefully things in Aust will not progress towards the sort of environment in France and many other parts of Europe before the Jewish community reps here become less PC.

There is not a place on earth where what Wertheim refers to as “counter-extremist strategies (typically interfaith and de-radicalisation programmes) has reversed the adverse effects of Islam in a Western society.

In the 1930s, there were Jewish organisations slow to recognise the magnitude of the threat from Nazism. Are we seeing history repeat?

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